Card Range To Study

28 Cards in this Set

what a word suggests beyond its basic dictionary definition; a word's overtones of meaning

denotation

the basic definition or dictionary meaning of a word

imagery
(seven different types)

the representation through language of sense experience
*visual-sight
*auditory-hearing
*tactile-touch
*gustatory-taste
*olfactory-smell
*organic-internal sensation such as thirst
*kinesthetic-movement or tension in the muscles or joints

irony

a situation or use of language involving some kind of incongruity or discrepancy

verbal irony

a figure of speech in which what is said is the opposite of what is meant

situational irony

a situation in which there is an incongruity between appearance and reality, or between expectation and fulfillment, or between the actual situation and what would seem appropriate

dramatic irony

an incongruity or discrepancy between what a CHARACTER says of thinks and what the reader knows to be true (or between what a character perceives and what the author intends the reader to perceive)

metaphor

a figure of speech in which an implicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. It may take one of four forms: 1) that in which the literal term and the figurative term are BOTH named 2) that in which the literal term is NAMed and the figurative term IMPLIED 3) that in which the literal term is IMPLIED and the figurative term NAMED 4) that in which BOTH the literal and the figurative terms are IMPLIED

simile

a figure of speech i which an explicit comparison is made between two things essentially unlike. the comparison is made explicit by the use of some such word or phrase such as like, as, than, similar

personification

a figure of speech in which human attributes are given to an animal, an object, or a concept

apostrophe

a figure of speech in which someone absent or dead or something nonhuman is addressed as if it were alive and present and could reply

allegory

a narrative or description that has a second meaning beneath the surface, often relating each literal term to a fixed, corresponding abstract idea or moral principle; usually, the ulterior meanings belong to a pre-existing system of ideas or principles

stanza

a group of lines whose metrical pattern (and usually its rhyme scheme as well) is repeated throughout a poem

overstatement (hyperbole)

a figure of speech in which exaggeration is used in the service of truth

understatement

a figure of speech that consists of saying less than one means, or of saying what one means with less force than the occassion warrants

caesura

a speech pause occurring within a line

satire

a kind of literature that ridicules human folly or vice with the purpose of bringing about reform or of keeping others from falling into similar folly or vice

sarcasm

bitter or cutting speech; speech intended by its speaker to give pain to the person addressed

extended figure

a figure of speech (usually metaphor, simile, personification, or apostrophe) sustained or developed through a considerable number of lines or through a whole poem

allusion

a reference, explicit or implicit, to something in previous literature or history. (the term is reserved by some writers for implicit references only)

rhyme

the repetition of the accented vowel sound and all succeeding sounds in important or importantly positioned words-----perfect rhyme assumes that the accented vowel sounds involved are preceded by differing consonant sounds. if the preceding consonant sound is the same or if there is no preceding consonant sound in either word or if the same word is repeated in the rhyming position the words are called identical rhymes.

rhythm

any wavelike recurrence of motion or sound

meter (scansion)

the regular patterns of accent that underlie metrical verse; the measurable repetition of accented and unaccented syllable in poetry

refrain

a repeated word, phrase, line, or group of lines, normally at some fixed position in a poem written in stanzaic form

paradox

a statement or situation containing apparently contradictory or incompatible elements

symbol

something that means MORe than what it is; an object, person, situation, or action that in addition to its literal meaning suggests other meanings as well

metonymy

a figure of speech in which some significant aspect or detail of an experience is used to represent the whole experience. the use of something closely related for the thing actually meant